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Jul 7, 2014

Moving to LA & The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail

By Josh Oakley

I’ve always felt that there was something more. It’s an
impulse intrinsic to human nature, to a certain extent, though it affects some
more than others. I am, unquestionably, one of the “some”. That isn’t to say
that I’m ungrateful for the life I've lived or the people I’ve met or the
experiences I’ve had. But none of them have made the yearning subside. Perhaps,
I both fear and hope, it is a thing that never truly fades.

A piece of that forward-driven persistence stems from
wanting to be around a tidal wave of culture. My hometown, Wheaton, a nice
suburb that I’m happy I was able to grow up in, lacks that sort of active
drive. I’ve resided in Chicago, and though it contains a powerful alternative
theater scene, and provides the rest of the country with plenty of talented
individuals, it doesn’t feel like a tipping point, at least in the way I’ve
been able to utilize it. I long for something to rival the New York scenes of
punk music in the 70's or literature in the 90’s (as captured in this, one of the best pieces
I’ve ever read). I’ve always wanted to be somewhere that felt unpredictable.

I don’t know, in the modern day, driven so much by the
Internet and its bedfellow, argumentation, that we have something quite like
this. The culture is fractured, for both better and worse. Maybe the closest we
have, at least in the way I perceive what the online world tells me, is the
comedy field in Los Angeles. New York and Chicago, and other spots throughout
the country, have vibrant comedy communities that deserve celebration. But at
least in my estimation, they don’t match the electricity of Los Angeles’. This
is the place where Tig Notaro’s stand-up concerning her cancer occurred, a set
that may be the best piece of art in any medium of the last five years. This is
where Comedy Bang! Bang!, a centerpiece of the field that embraces talent both
established and upcoming, is located. Again, none of this is to diminish the
great work people in other cities are accomplishing regularly. Just to speak to
what I find so invigorating about a place I haven’t visited since I was a
child.

When The Meltdown with
Jonah and Kumail television show was announced, I was not yet sure where I
would be going after college. I was thrilled that a show that had seemingly
already become an LA staple would make its way to my TV screen, even in a
truncated format. Since then, I’ve made my plans, and will be moving to Los
Angeles with one of my best friends in September. Before that happens, earlier
today, I got a preview of The Meltdown,
in the form of the first episode premiering early online. It’s a great
half-hour, featuring funny stand-up (especially from Neal Brennan) and the
biggest laugh that the word “Aladdin” has ever gotten. But what I love most,
the inclusion of which was a stroke of genius, is the backstage footage.

Those backstage sequences are the proof that The Meltdown in television form is fully
committed to its audience; why else show Moshe Kasher and Natasha Leggero
talking about Rory Scovel? It’s a show where flashing the names of those
onscreen feels almost unnecessary, not because of exclusivity, but because the
community feels so fleshed out and the intended audience so clear. Those
conversational bits were my favorite aspect of Kroll Show’s most recent season as well, adding a layer of how well
these people know and care about each other. This tenor has been rising in the
world of comedy for years now. It may have always been present, and stories
bandied about make that seem like the case, but the rise of comedy podcasts
aided the notion of comedians working with each other even the field of
stand-up which, to the outsider, can seem so singular.

All of these things working in tandem have made the entire
comedy field feel more and more like a community, no matter the city at hand.
But Los Angeles, for a number of reasons, still feels like a large beating
heart in the middle of it. A large part of the reason I’m moving there is to
get closer to this community, so I can see The Meltdown or tapings of Doug
Loves Movies whenever I wish. I’m not going there to be part of that world, per
se (comedy is my love, not my personal talent), but to be around it and hope to
suck up at least a little of its electricity. In Chicago I was treated to
friends that invigorated me, and helped assure me that I wanted nothing more
than to be an artist. Now, as I ready to move, I look for an even more insular
community; friends to write scripts with, a place to hone my personal skills.
And, surrounding me, the voices of those I admire and appreciate. Maybe I won’t
find what I need in Los Angeles. At the very least, I just want to find
something more, even if it’s just a pulsating energy that will point me even
more precisely in the direction I need to head. The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail helps to prove that this idea
does exist and gives me hope that I’ll find the version of it that I long for.

which possibly wouldn’t have befell if she went with Alex like she definitely desired to instead. however now not wishing to dash Alex’s dream, she shall we him circulate ahead to Boston, in which he’s been ordinary at Harvard, gogoanime